EFW-EADS, the freighter conversionarm of Airbus, has unexpectedly founditself with seven free slots at its Dresdenplant due to the cancellation of someorders, sources in the company haveadmitted. The company previously hadall its conversion slots spoken for until2010 and beyond.

Some of the cancellations are due toFedEx terminating its A310 conversionprogramme following its decision toplace a major order for 757 conversions.Future demand is likely to focuson the A300-600, though Air India andTurkish Airlines are both convertingthree A310s each, and German start-upFreshline is apparently still intendingto convert four of the aircraft, thoughat press time it had yet to sign a firmcontract.

Otherwise, EFW is waiting for majorblocks of passenger A300-600s to bereleased, including 34 in the Americanfleet, eight in Korean Air’s fleet, eight atThai Airways and the remaining sevenat China Eastern.